Three Hallows, Two Weasleys and One Broken Girl

Chapter 37: Sisters

A short one, but none of you deserved the suspense.

———

Destiny and Fate have many conflicts.
All sisters do.
But rarely are such bonds worth testing.
As Destiny had sent her white haired chosen down a path conveniently placed to aid Delphi Lovegood, Fate rolled her eyes, but smiled.
Death simply turned a page in his book. He chased no souls, all came to him eventually, no matter how his siblings played with them first.

———

Luna is aching all over when she wakes, and can still feel the tremors running through her body due to cruciatus exposure.
She was pretty sure she'd died but the room she was in did not have a single monk in ceremonial robes carrying a three tiered death day cake. Therefore, somehow she must have survived having her throat slit by Lord Voldemort.

Gernumblies?

No, looking over Luna finds her answer absent mindedly paging through a text on Italian Magecraft.
"Thank you." She says, though it comes out more of a croak. If her voice stays like that forever she might be able to get a proper accent for gobbledygook.
Narcissa Malfoy doesn't startle in the slightest, raising beautiful grey eyes to hers. "No child will die in my house." She declares firmly.
There is a steel in her tone, and an edge of madness in the lines of her face, that gives Luna little doubt Voldemort would have backed off in this fight.

"I am glad to hear it."
"You sister is an adult." Pointed out Narcissa, half statement, half warning.
"She will not die here anyway." Luna replies airily, and ignores Narcissa's eye blink in favour of sitting up in the bed.
"Indeed." Says the lady quietly, examining Luna with sharp eyes. "I will get word to your sister that you live, if you tell me if my son will too."
"I couldn't say." Luna tells her truthfully. "But Delphi might. Tell her 'Live long and prosper' and she'll trust your words."
Narcissa inclined her head and then gestured toward the fireplace. "Alecto's office will be empty. You are no longer needed, go."
Luna did not need to be told twice.

She did need two attempts to get out the bed however, and was hardly at her most graceful stumbling out her teacher's fireplace.
The pain in her neck was strange, it itched more than twinged with pain, and she had to fight the urge not to scratch at the bandages that made her feel like she wearing Nearly Headless Nick's ruff.

Slipping out the room, she nervously made her way to the seventh floor. It was dark outside most of the windows she looked through (there was one on the fourth floor that looked out on acres of sandy dunes, where the sun typically rose around 2 pm at this time of year), and with the lack of roaming students she guessed it was past curfew.
Clearly Fate thought she'd been through enough as she luckily encountered no one before reaching the Room of Requirement and the hideout with in.

The room was now larger than the Great Hall and harboured pretty well the entirety of Gryffindor, half of Hufflepuff and a quarter of the Ravenclaws. As such it was a positive fabric warehouse of blue, red and yellow hammocks and tents.
There were even a handful of Slytherins, primarily those of mixed blood - Tracy Davis, and those pure bloods from other areas of the world like the Italian Blaise Zabini.
Those few sleeping in green hammocks had been treated warily at first but soon charmed their way and proved their nerve. Dumbledore's - or rather Harry Potter's - Army, were a close knit; if rather traumatised, team.

It was one of the Slytherins indeed who clocked her rather wobbly entry through the door, a haggard seventh year who had nearly been murdered by his housemates before a Hufflepuff friend let him in on the secret.
"Fetch Longbottom!" He bellowed to those around eating breakfast, "and one of the healing students! Lovegood's back!"

That launched the room into a flurry of activity, and Luna was relieved when Susan Bones raced over and took some of her weight. Luna was still a little woozy from blood loss, and a warm spirited Hufflepuff at close range was just the cure for fragideritoes.

"LUNA!" Roared a familiar voice, and finally her hummingbird heart settled.
Neville had grown into his naturally bulky frame and lost the baby fat from his cheeks in his months as a resistance leader. Despite the yellow cardigan she'd given him for Christmas, he cut a heroic figure striding out of the main tent and sprinting at the sight of her.
With proximity she could make out the bruises beneath his eyes though, and deep relief beneath his smile; he missed her. He worried for her.
Delphi might like her two tomatoes, but Luna preferred her butternut squash every day of the week, even Wednesdays.

"You've been missing for two days! What happened! Alecto said that-" Neville's voice got progressively more raspy as he spoke, and his sentence ended abruptly with a tighter squeeze.
Luna tried for a reassuring hum but the sound didn't come, so she elected to speak, as clearly as she could.
"I was used to threaten Phi." Neville paled and whispers erupted around the room at her cracked voice. "It will be okay," Luna assured, "but I need to write to the tomatoes, can I borrow your owl?"

———

Tomatoes,
A change in season can mean a change in prescription. The Adelphi Theatre is difficult to find via Satnav, especially with all the albino birds.
Wazoo,
Solana Hassenbad

George's grip on the short missive relaxed and he absently handed the tawny messenger a treat.
When he speaks, it's not with the frenetic dangerous energy that's inhabited his body for months, but with a soft anticipatory tone that has his twin launching out the brewing room.
"Fred...Where did you last leave your glasses?"